Well we didn’t hit the planned February release. Should have taken a leaf out of the software industry and said Q1…
Feb is always a tough one in the North of England, what with low energy, at least some hints of S.A.D. no matter how many Vitamin D supplements you down, and only 28 days to get things done! It also remains a super busy time for me day-job-wise, though on the upside, we are now halfway through Semester 2… in about six weeks, my day job starts to get MUCH easier till next September or so.
There has been some progress though. The InDesign file we inherited didn’t come with hi-res images of the art, but I’ve found Harry Boddice’s excellent original files again and we’ve updated those. Chris C. is sending us his very soon — they’re all done, they just want emailing to us. The new artist I’ve found, Helen Phillips, should have four or so new art pieces with me this coming week — I mentioned her somewhat archaeological style, which I’m still loving! Here is one of her preliminary sketches that will get slightly more detail at the inking stage, including flowers. It’s a Thulandic altar, with zoomorphic details inspired by a real-world Viking hogback-style grave. I feel like it’s very in keeping with the depiction of Thuland we see in Cursed King, so I’m really looking forward to the finished piece. We should have Cursed King out this month… I know I’ve said that before.
We are all at the Very Excited phase of thinking about Day of Legend this summer, organised by Simon Barns of Red Ruin fame. Me, Rowan, and Brunnhilde should all be there, hopefully with some copies of Cursed King by that point.
The edit of Summoner’s Tale continues and I should have it ready to pass on to Rowan for layout once Cursed King is finished, so I’m hoping that is out by April at latest. I think that will make the fourth “Tale” adventure; I have started working on The Monk’s Tale, 500 words in so far, which should make five. The original Canterbury Tales had 24, but I doubt we will get quite there any time soon; I might see if anyone fancies writing a sixth, though, and then we can contemplate a Tales of Legend, Volume 1 collected release in print. Who knows, maybe we’ll have enough for a Volume 2 in a few years.
Not much news on Brymstone at this point. We have some material from Robert and are mulling it over — mostly Brunnhilde’s department right now — and I am still hopeful we will get Brymstone out later this year, as a major release for the 40th anniversary of this game we all so love.
